It’s hard not to judge a book by its cover, or in this case, an article by its headline, when the first words that scream out at you are: From bikinis to burkas: A Yemeni memoir. If your first thought is, “Not again. Haven’t we been down this cliché-littered road before?” then you’re not alone. […]

East meets West and pop meets soul in the latest album from Dutch international music star, Rajae El Mouhandiz, released this past Saturday. But of all the words to describe Hand of Fatima, Sufi-inspired might be the most fitting. The album is a musical meander through the life and times of Rajae, a 30-year-old North […]

Saudi cartoonist Hana Hajjar chats with MMW about work, her inspiration and challenging societal taboos.

Two constitutional court cases in Kuwait raise questions of a paradigm shift in women’s rights.

For many of us, the last few weeks before the start of Ramadan mark a time to prepare ourselves mentally and spiritually for gaining the benefits of the month ahead. As such, the mass email forwards began arriving in my inbox in early August, with lists prepared by various Muslim institutions gently reminding the faithful […]

Salam MMW readers! My name is Malika and I’m an American journalist who recently moved to the Gulf (Persian to some, Arabian to others). It’s an incredibly interesting time to be living in a region that’s still trying to determine what kind of place it wants to be. In the meantime, there are lots of […]